Wearing of eyeglasses and the like while engaged in vigorous activity can be difficult for various reasons. One key reason is a fundamental inability of most eyeglass frames to provide a protective seal around a wearer's eyes for preventing wind, dust, dirt, moisture, glare, ultraviolet radiation, and other contaminants and debris from contacting, and potentially damaging, the wearer's eyes.
Many people wear eyeglasses for reasons other than, or in addition to, vision correction. Well-known examples are the large number of different types of “sunglasses” that reduce the intensity (and/or change the wavelength) of light reaching the wearer's eyes. Other well-known examples are so-called “safety glasses” usually used for eye protection in industrial and laboratory environments. Yet other well-known examples are various “goggles” and the like.
As used herein, “eyewear” generally encompasses all of various eyeglass types summarized above as well as any other analogous device configured to fit to a person's face and that includes a “frame” and “lenses.” The frame typically has a front portion situated largely in front of the wearer's eyes. The lenses are mounted to the front portion and transmit at least some light to the wearer's eyes. Mounted to the front portion are “temple pieces” that extend rearward from the front portion to engage and/or rest upon the wearer's ears. The temple pieces usually, but not necessarily, are hinged to the front portion.
To address the concerns raised by the need for protection of the wearer's eyes during activity, various schemes have been adopted. For example, certain types of eyewear, notably safety goggles and certain types of eyeglasses, employ shields, liners, and other sealing members for protecting a wearer's eyes during use, such as described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,083,276; 7,036,927; 6,988,798; and 7,013,495, as well as U.S. Patent Publication No. 2004/0051839. Unfortunately, the sealing members of these types of eyewear are not adjustable to conform to various face sizes and shapes. Therefore, such eyewear may fail to provide adequate protection for the wearer's eyes during activity, provide sufficient venting, or retain the versatility from which, for example, extended wear may benefit.
Some schemes have been tried to improve the protection of a wearer's eyes by providing adjustable sealing members. For example, a first scheme involves adjusting the spacing between two lenses or pivoting eye cups to conform to the facial contour of a wearer, such as discussed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,108,074. A second scheme involves inflating or deflating an inflatable cushion member to provide an adjustable seal against contaminants, such as discussed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,129,109. A third scheme involves retracting or extending, such as by pivoting, retractable eyeshields to provide eye protection that can be adjusted to an individual wearer, such as discussed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,422,684. Unfortunately, these various schemes tend to be highly specialized and do not address all needs, especially needs posed by concepts of style and utility that arise with modern sports eyeglasses.